Four men died after allegedly being exposed to toxic gas inside an illegal coal mine in a forest area along the Giddi-Ramgarh border in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on Saturday, triggering a political row.
The deceased were identified as Ashish Rajwar (25), Kishore Rawani (35), Deva Kumar Bedia (25) and Dablu Bedia (30). Sources said the men had entered the closed mine for excavation work when the incident took place.
According to sources, one of the men was the first to inhale toxic gas and collapsed inside the mine. While trying to rescue him, three others entered the mine but were also stuck with unknown toxic gas and fell unconscious.
Soon, local residents and police personnel rushed to the spot and launched a rescue effort. Police officials informed that all four men were taken to a nearby hospital. “Doctors declared two of them dead on arrival, while the remaining two succumbed during treatment,” an official said, adding that the post-mortem examinations are being conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death.
The forest department said that the mining was illegally operating in the forest area. “All legal and illegal mining areas fall under forest department only but this was opened recently without the notice of forest department. Possibly this illegal mining was discovered just a few days ago and we could not have noticed it. However, we have spotted many such unauthorized mines and took actions against them,” said Nitish Kumar, DFO, Ramgarh.
Kumar also added that the forest department will coordinate with the police administration to investigate the case.
Reacting to the deaths, BJP state president Aditya Sahu demanded stringent action against officials and those responsible for the alleged illegal mining activities. He called for a case to be registered against the district administration and police officials, alleging administrative failure in preventing illegal mining operations.
Sahu claimed that illegal mining continues across several parts of Jharkhand despite repeated reviews and directives issued by the state government. He questioned how mining activities could continue in abandoned mines without the knowledge of the administration and law enforcement agencies.
Referring to the Ramgarh incident, Sahu alleged that the victims had entered the abandoned mine for illegal coal extraction and said the tragedy exposed serious lapses in enforcement. He also alleged that mining mafias continued to operate in different parts of the state and accused the administration of failing to act effectively against them.
He further cited previous mining-related accidents in Ramgarh and other districts, claiming that labourers were repeatedly losing their lives in unsafe and unauthorised mining operations. He warned that the party would launch an agitation if there was any attempt to shield those responsible for the deaths or dilute the investigation.
“The repeated review meetings and announcements had failed to translate into effective ground-level action. We demand accountability from all the agencies responsible for regulating mining activities and ensuring public safety,” said Sahu.
The district administration is expected to submit a report after preliminary investigations and post-mortem findings are completed.
